The Eagleman Stag: 2013 SOTW Best Short Animation Award

“The larger our past gets, the smaller our present feels.”

The Eagleman Stag is an award-winning, stunning monochrome stop-motion animated short film by Michael Please, which was awarded Best Short Animation at the 2011 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA). The film has received universal acclaim playing at high-profile film festivals including Sundance and SXSW, winning awards at Annecy and Clermont-Ferrand, in addition to BAFTA. The film was named one of 10 finalists competing for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The Eagleman Stag has just been honored as winner of the 2013 SOTW Best Short Animation Award.

Told in a distinctive, contemporary film-noir style, The Eagleman Stag is a story of life and fear, a darkly comic take on one man’s obsession with the quickening perception of time that faces all of us as we age, and his attempts to counter this effect. As Peter Eagleman nears the end of his days, his obsessive attempts to define the world, and his haunting perception of time within it, leads to progressively extreme measures to control and counter time’s increasing pace.

The Maker: The Beguiling Preciousness of Life and Love

The Maker is an acclaimed stop-motion animated short film directed by Christopher Kezelos, which has screened and wan major film awards at a number of film festivals. The film has recently been nominated for Best Animated Short Film in the 2013 Short of the Week Awards, with winners to be announced beginning February11, 2013.

The Maker is set in a dimly-lit fantasy world, where a strange rabbit-like creature races against time, as he attempts to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life. Freud more than once implied that what is fundamental to our sense of happiness is the ability to love and work. Similarly, director Kezelos describes The Maker as an exploration of “the preciousness of our moments on earth, the short time we have with loved ones and the enjoyment of ones life’s work and purpose. In their fleeting existence our characters experience joy, love, hard work, purpose, loss and loneliness.”

Belly: A Heart-Wrenching Tale of Childhood Love and Loss

Belly is an acclaimed animated short film by filmmaker Julia Pott, created in 2011 for her thesis at London’s Royal College of Art. The film had a long and successful run on the festival circuit, including screenings at Sundance, Animafest Zagreb, SXSW, the Holland Animation Film Festival and the Hiroshima International Animation Festival (among many others). Belly has recently been nominated for Best Animated Short Film in the 2013 Short of the Week Awards, with winners to be announced beginning February 4, 2013.

Belly is a strange and beautiful coming-of-age tale that explores the bittersweet childhood transitional state of having to leave things behind. Oscar and his aggressive older brother Alex go the beach. Alex works very hard to put Oscar in his place, telling him that he isn’t old enough yet to go for a swim with him. Oscar, however, has a companion of his own, a “monster” who loves him and remains at his side. When Alex gets in trouble, it is up to Oscar and his monster to rescue him, but what Oscar gains from the experience in terms of maturity and Alex’s respect, is offset by the sadness of loss.